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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27447244">Wandering Spirits</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Playedcrowd5610/pseuds/Playedcrowd5610'>Playedcrowd5610</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender, Danny Phantom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Crossover, Danny has problems with his powers, Danny has trust issues, Danny joins team Avatar, Danny joins the Gaang (Avatar), Gen, Secret Identity, Sokka being Sokka, are ghosts spirits?, trapped in an alternate universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 03:00:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,268</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27447244</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Playedcrowd5610/pseuds/Playedcrowd5610</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny is badly injured and manages to escape one of his enemies through a strange new portal he came across in the ghost zone.  What will he do when he ends up in a strange new world and is found by team avatar unconscious.  What if Danny became part of team avatar at the very beginning, how would things have changed for the team? </p>
<p> I wanted Danny to be apart of team avatar, so I wrote it, hope you will enjoy.  He will be in most episodes.  I will also be adding in a few of my own that revolve more around Danny, as well as some new villains and friends. each chapter will be an episode.  Hope you like it.  &lt;3</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>166</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Danny's eyes shot open, his body aching in pain. "What happened where am I?" he muttered angrily as his eyes darted around the darkroom, barely making out a figure in the room.</p>
<p>"Daniel, your awake." The man's tone smug. Danny immediately recognized who it was.</p>
<p>"Vlad." He growled, pulling his arms against the metal restraints holding him down. "What did you do to me?" His hole side and arm felt like they were on fire. He remembered fighting Valery, when he was blasted, Some brand new ghost weapon or something.</p>
<p>The tall man stepped forward, so he was more visible, he had silver hair and an expensive-looking suit. A smirk spread across his face. "Well my boy, I saved you." Danny glared at the man not believing a word that escaped through his lips. "You were badly injured in a fight with young Valery, so you see I took you here." He gestured around his lab, which Danny was only now able to see as his eyes finally adjusted to the light.</p>
<p>"You make her weapons; you didn't save me!" his first started to glow green, but the power sputtered out of existence.</p>
<p>"Let's avoid the technicalities, shall we. And I healed you, well mostly." Danny's eyes darted down towards his side and arm, as much as he could see strapped down on a table. across his arm and shoulder, all the way down his side and onto his back was a scar, his skin was burned, that was the pain that he had been feeling. Vlad smiled at the boy's surprised and worried expression. "Oh, and I took it upon myself to add some much-needed accessories."</p>
<p>Danny's eyes flew back up to the man. "What do you mean."</p>
<p>"Well, you might not be able to feel it, but there is a piece of metal in your neck. My own design of course." He gestured towards himself. "It gives me control of how strong your powers are, and I can turn them off and on with the push of a single button." He held out a remote and pushed the green button in the middle. A shock of electricity shot through Danny's body, waves of pain around him. Suddenly two familiar white rings materialized around his waist pulling apart to reveal a white-haired teen with toxic green eyes and a black and white jumpsuit.</p>
<p>Danny growled at the man, as he pushed the same button, causing him to transform back into his human side. his raven-colored hair covering his eyes. Vlad placed the remote into his suit pocket. "I am still working out the kinks, but it works quite well, don't you think?"</p>
<p>Danny's blue eyes flashed a bright fluorescent green in anger, but couldn't get his mouth to move. Vlad laughed at the boy's silent protest, and Danny hung his head. He felt like he was going to throw up, the world around him spinning. He couldn't let Vlad have him, he couldn't. Danny summoned all the power he had to fire out of his hand, the blast recishayed off of a mirror that was in the corner of the room, and back to hit the tables' PowerSource.</p>
<p>The clips on Danny's wrists released, and he fell to the floor. He only had a second to think before Vlad could grab him, there across the room was the ghost portal, he could escape that way. He got up off the floor and bolted across the room. Vlad whipped around and reached his hand out in an effort to blast the boy. Danny ducked and the blast hit the purple wall behind him.</p>
<p>He dove into the swirling green ghost portal not looking behind him. It felt weird, he had only ever gone through the ghost portal as a ghost, somehow it felt different in his human skin. Once his eyes opened, he could see the swirling green world around him, multiple of his enemy's islands in the distance. He breathed a sigh of relief, he tried to go ghost so he could actually move around, but the ring around his waist just flickered in and out of existence and nothing happened.</p>
<p>Vlad quickly transformed into his ghost counterpart and flew through after the boy. He saw him looking around drastically for where to go next. He raised his hand and blasted Danny from behind. The blast that hit his back made him fly forward, much farther than Vlad would have hoped.</p>
<p>As Danny was drifting away, he realized that he may not be able to go ghost right now but it seems he could still use his ectoblasts. He threw his hands behind him and let out a steady blast, propelling him forward. His eyes were starting to blackout, he was going to fall asleep any second. Another portal caught his eye, it was much bigger than any of the other ones he had seen before. But if he could get to it before it closes, maybe Vlad will not be able to follow. He just hoped that on the other side wasn't worse.</p>
<p>Danny closed his eyes, and shot out a final blast behind him, shooting him through the portal as it was closing. He heard Vlad call out 'Nooo!' behind him, so he assumed that the portal closed before he got there. He made it, he got away.</p>
<p>It took a second for him to realize this but Danny was falling from the sky, his body felt paralyzed. His arms locked to his side; he couldn't do anything. This is it; his vision went black</p>
<p>x</p>
<p>"What are you doing Sokka?" Katara questioned leaning back on a tree with her arms crossed. Her blue dress contrasting against the green wildlife around them.</p>
<p>"Stretching, it's so I can be battle-ready for anything that comes my way." Sokka pulled his arm across his chest, and then bent down to touch his toes. He was wearing the same colour clothing as his sister and had gloves on with his fingers sticking out and white fabric wrapped around his forearms.</p>
<p>There was a loud groan coming from behind the siblings and they both turned to face the noise. Appa landed with a thump on the ground and rolled over to stick his tongue out. Aang jumped off the bison's back, his orange shirt filled with air to slow his landing to the ground. He was holding a brown wooden staff that he spun around in his fingertips as he walked over to his friends. "Appa is getting really tired, we should hang out here for a while." He gestured his hand towards the 6-legged sky bison that was laying on the dirt.</p>
<p>"We should probably also find some food; I'll do some fishing." Sokka reached for his bag that was laying on the ground next to him, looking for his fishing line. "Ugg where is it?" he started pulling everything out of the bag and throwing it behind him.</p>
<p>Katara slapped her hand to her forehead and looked up to the sky. She saw a small dot falling closer and closer to them, after a second, she realized it was a person. "There is someone up there!" Both Aang and Sokka's heads shot straight up and they saw him.</p>
<p>Aang's eyes winded as he pulled out his staff, he spun it around making an air cushion for whoever it was to land on. The air slowed his fall enough that he didn't break anything from the fall. when he landed on the ground though, he was already out cold.</p>
<p>Sokka jumped up and ran over to where the person landed followed closely by the others. There on the ground in front of them was a raven-haired boy, probably about 15. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and his pants were all ripped. Across his chest and arm was a large scar, it looked new.</p>
<p>Sokka placed his hand on the boy's neck, his heartbeat was weird, it was so light but pumping really fast. But his breathing was normal. "he is alive."</p>
<p>"Who is he?" Katara questioned bending down to look at the knocked-out boy.</p>
<p>"Whoever he is, he is hurt. We should get him closer to our stuff." Sokka looked over to Aang, who handed his staff to Katara before grabbing the boy's ankles. Both Aang and Sokka lifted him over to where they had put their stuff. Katara unraveled one of their sleeping bags and put it on the ground for the boy to lay on.</p>
<p>As the boys laid him down gently onto the sleeping bag, Katara spoke up. "Do you think he will be alright, he doesn't look so good."</p>
<p>"I don't know Katara, but we should put something over those burns and cuts," Sokka said as he bent down to the ground to grab a roll of bandages that were in his bag until he threw them on the ground in his hunt for the fishing line.</p>
<p>Katara started to rap the unknown boy in the bandages, he had gotten a bunch of cuts as well from the fall. "Do you think the fire nation gave him that scar?" she asked her friends who were sitting down silently, not knowing what to do about the boy.</p>
<p>"I don't know, this scar seemed different somehow, but we should still be careful because for all we know he is fire nation." Sokka threw his hands in the air. And Katara tied the end of the bandage.</p>
<p>"Well right now I just hope he wakes up." She bundled up the rest of the cloth and placed it back into Sokka's bag.</p>
<p>x</p>
<p>"Prince Zuko you should come see this." A fire nation crewman called out. Zuko, walked over to the man and snatched the telescope angrily from his hands, and raised it to his non burned eye.</p>
<p>He couldn't explain what he saw, it was some sort of green light in the sky, and in a flash of white light a boy was falling to the ground and the green was gone. The boy fell and was about to smash into the ground, but he was stopped by a gust of air. "Air bending," Zuko muttered. He pulled the telescope away from his face. "Stop at the shore." He commanded. "I want to check that out."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>- This is before Phantom Planet, just to be clear. and I did not mention this so far but Danny has a locket with a photo of his family and friends in it on his wrist.</p><p>- This takes place just before they make it to Kyoshi Island. I want Danny to be apart of team avatar, he will be in most episodes. I will also be adding in a few of my own that revolve more around Danny, as well as some new villains and friends. each chapter will be an episode. but this chapter and chapter two will be much shorter because I felt it was necessary for the part about them meeting for the first time.</p><p>- I know my writing is not that good yet, so once I get better at writing I will update all of the chapters. so please also add ideas and stuff I can add to the redo of a chapter or things I can do for future chapters. I would love to hear what you think.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Danny's eyes opened suddenly as he took in a deep breath as if coming back to life. But quickly slammed his eyes shut again because of the bright light of the sun, it took him a second to get used to it. He heard talking around him, it was indistinguishable at the moment, his head felt like it was splitting, and his side and arm hurt, like a sunburn but 100 times worse. He reached for his side; it was bandaged! He closed his eyes again and rolled his head back, were these people friendly?</p>
<p>The moment he opened his eyes again, they were met with bright green ones an inch from his face, he jumped with a quiet gargled 'eep' and tried to crawl back out of fright. The creature jumped off of his chest and ran around next to a small group of people. It was some sort of white and brown lemur with big ears. The people turned around to face him. "hey, listen, you got hurt. You're safe now."</p>
<p>Danny was glad he could understand them, but he defeatedly didn't trust them yet. He had been tricked more times than he could count. "My name is Katara, this is Aang and Sokka. And the one that woke you up, that was Momo." She explained calmly before asking. "What's your name?" Danny hesitated for a second.</p>
<p>"D-Danny." What could they do with a name right?</p>
<p>"Hi Danny, very nice to meet you and all. What were you doing in the sky!?" Sokka exclaimed and pointed up. Danny followed where he was pointing and looked up seeing the canopy of trees above them.</p>
<p>"I fell." Danny answered dryly, reverting his gaze back at the boy.</p>
<p>"How did you fall from that height?"</p>
<p>"Not sure."</p>
<p>Katara stepped closer to him. "How did you get hurt?" she pointed to the bandages that she put on him.</p>
<p>Danny turned away, "It doesn't matter." Was the only answer they were going to get out of him. He didn't want to talk to them that much. He was still trying to assess the situation he was in.</p>
<p>A few moments later he jumped up and yelped out of surprise. A large tongue licked him across his back causing him to fall over. He scrambled away to see what looked like a furry buffalo, with white fur with a brown arrow on his head. He was also much bigger than most animals he had ever seen. He would have guessed it was about the size of Cujo in his angry form, maybe bigger.</p>
<p>"Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce you. This is Appa, my flying bison." Aang explained as he tried to help Danny up.</p>
<p>"He can fly?" he looked up at the creature as it just looked back at him with happy eyes and a tilted head. Danny had to give it to him, he was quite cute.</p>
<p>"That is how we have been traveling for the last couple days." Sokka said. Leaning back on a log and sharpening his boomerang with a rock.</p>
<p>"Where are you guys going?" Danny asked, pulling his arm away from Aang who was still holding it from helping him up, he just forgot to let go.</p>
<p>"We are trying to get to the north pole to find a water bending master. So, they could teach me and Aang." Katara said as she started to pack up some stuff so they could go out again.</p>
<p>Danny tilted his head to the side a bit. "What is water bending?" He asked his voice full of confusion, he had never heard of it before.</p>
<p>Sokka started laughing hysterically, clutching his stomach. He laughed for a couple of seconds until he realized that Danny was serious. "Wait you are serious. How have you never heard of water bending before?"</p>
<p>"I guess I just haven't, I am not from around here." Danny shrugged, and ignored the looks the others were giving him.</p>
<p>Katara spoke up. "It's, um like being able to control water, only some people are born with it. like me and Aang, see." She raised her hands in the air to create a small bubble of water the floated out of the river next to them. Her hands shook, and after a couple of seconds the bubble popped causing the water to fall to the ground. "I am not even close to becoming a master, but I am learning."</p>
<p>Danny heard a crack of a stick nearby and turned his head to listen closer. "Someone's here. in the trees." He muttered just loud enough that the others could hear. He tried to power up a blast in his hand, but as soon as he tried to redirect his ectoplasm, a shock from the chip in his neck zapped him painfully. "I guess no using my powers for a while huh." He spoke to himself; the others didn't hear.</p>
<p>Aang spun his staff around in his hand and pointed it at the trees. "Who is there, show yourself!" he called out, while everyone got into a battle stance, including Danny. Out from behind the trees steeped Zuko with three guards behind him.</p>
<p>"Zuko." Sokka snarled reading his boomerang for a fight. "How did you find us."</p>
<p>"We saw someone falling out of the sky. And came to investigate, and what do I find the Avatar and his friends." Zuko lit a small fire in his palm with a smirk on his face.</p>
<p>Aang jumped into the air and brought down a huge blast of air flinging Zuko and his crew members back into the trees. "Get to Appa!" he yelled and jumped 20 feet into the air and landed in the bison's back.</p>
<p>Danny wasn't sure what they were going to do, but he guessed he should go with the people that apparently saved him. He ran behind them as the bison turned around letting his tail fall down onto the ground like a ramp. Zuko let out a yell of anger, as he tried to blast fire at the bison as it was lifting off of the ground. The burst of flame barely missed his back leg.</p>
<p>They broke a couple of branches as they flew through the trees, a couple of leaves and pine needles left in the bison's fur.</p>
<p>They all breathed a sigh of relief once they got high enough into the air. "That was close." Katara breathed out.</p>
<p>Danny held his side tightly, his body really didn't like running that much. "Who was that?" He asked breathlessly.</p>
<p>"That is Zuko, he has been following us ever since the south pole. He is trying to capture Aang." Sokka explained.</p>
<p>"Why does he want you?" Danny turned his attention to Aang who was holding the reins of the giant bison.</p>
<p>"Because, because I am the avatar." He answered looking down a bit, sounding ashamed.</p>
<p>"Okay, and that is?" Danny asked with an eyebrow raised.</p>
<p>Everyone on the bison turned around in shock to stare at Danny who just had a confused look on his face. Sokka spoke up. "How do you now know who the avatar is! You know master of all four elements, hero, this doesn't ring any bells." He threw his hands in the air.</p>
<p>Danny shook his head no. "What, have you been living under a rock!" Sokka yelled.</p>
<p>"Sokka." Katara scolded.</p>
<p>"I don't know anything about where I am, what is going on. Nothing about this bending thing, I am not from around here, and I definitely don't know how to get home." Danny exclaimed leaning back against the edge of the saddle looking out into the sky. Everyone stayed silent for a couple of minutes, not knowing how to respond to what Danny said.</p>
<p>"We will try our best to help you get home." Katara reassured putting her hand lightly on Danny's non burned shoulder.</p>
<p>Danny sighed and pulled away from her hand. "Sure."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ahh I know this is not a great chapter, I wasn't sure how to get them to meat properly. I wanted the fight with Zuko to be longer but I didn't know-how. I will be making this so much better when I update it. The next chapter will be a day after this one during the Kyoshi episode and will be much longer. Please leave a review for any ideas for the future or things I can add, also to tell me what you think so far. Thank you to all who commented on the last chapter!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You have no idea where you are going do you?" Sokka asked, pulling a map down from in front of his face with an eyebrow raised.</p>
<p>Aang turned around his hands still on the reigns. "Well I know it's near water." He chuckled nervously.</p>
<p>"I guess we are getting close then." Danny said sarcastically, as he looked out into the vast blue seemingly endless ocean they were flying over, no land in sight. Watching the water below them was almost hypnotic, Danny didn't take his eyes off of it as they flew.</p>
<p>Danny was deciding to stick with these guys, they were nice enough and he had no idea where he was really. It was obvious this wasn't earth. Or his earth. All of these strange new things like bending, Avatar's, and strange animals. The trio explained a bit about what this 'avatar' thing was after Danny was really confused. The way they had described it to him was there was a person that would get reincarnated every 100 or so years, and they would be the Avatar (Basically a superhero). They could control all elements whereas other people would only control 1 or none at all. Aang also talked about how the Avatar was the bridge between the spirit world and the human world.</p>
<p>Danny was really intrigued by the last part of that, 'the spirit world' sounded a lot like the ghost zone, Aang mentioned he never saw the place before, but was told a lot of strange stories about it. But maybe these guys could help him out with getting home. Maybe Aang would be able to find a way to get Danny into the ghost zone. Get home.</p>
<p>But he was still very wary of these new people. He had only met them a day ago, and he couldn't exactly get away if he wanted to. They were flying hundreds of feet in the air on the back of a flying six-legged buffalo that was surprisingly cute. If Danny did have his powers he could fly away easily. Right now, staying with these guys is the best and only option.</p>
<p>Danny was snapped out of his thoughts when Aang spoke up suddenly, "Momo, marbles please." He asked the lemur that was sitting on his shoulder. He then crawled inside his shirt and grabbed a couple of marbles from one of Aang's pockets, and placed it in his hand. "Hey Katara, check out this cool air bending trick I learned." He uses the air to spin the marbles around in his hand making a spiral. Danny thought it was quite cool, seeing as he had never really seen any bending before.</p>
<p>"That's great Aang." Katara said dryly, not taking her eyes off of the navy blue cloth she was sewing in her lap.</p>
<p>"You didn't even look." Aang muttered with a disappointed voice. Stopping the marbles from spinning and then holding them clamped in his hand. Katara put down the cloth and turned to Aang.</p>
<p>"That's great."</p>
<p>"But I am not doing it now." He looked down at his hands. Sokka butted in.</p>
<p>"Stop bugging her airhead, you need to give girls space when they do their sewing." He waved his hand dismissively in the air.</p>
<p>"What does me being a girl have to do with sowing?" Katara had an angry tone in her voice. Danny smirked at her reaction, but was still facing away from the others.</p>
<p>"Its simple girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." Sokka explained. "it's just the natural order of things."</p>
<p>Danny cringed; he knew what was coming. If he ever said anything like that to Sam, he would get an earful and probably a kick in the shins.</p>
<p>"All done with your pants, and look what a great job I did." She responded snarkily, holding up the pants with a large hole still torn in them. She threw them at Sokka's face and crossed her arms. Danny chuckled.</p>
<p>"Wait, wait I was just kidding I can't wear these." He stuck his hand through the hole in the pants, "Katara please."</p>
<p>Danny crossed his arms. "You are just going to dig yourself a bigger grave, man."</p>
<p>Sokka glared at Danny for not taking his side, who shrugged in return. Aang spoke up.</p>
<p>"Don't worry Sokka, where we are going you won't need any pants."</p>
<p>Danny turned to Aang with a confused look on his face as they started to land down on an island that Danny didn't notice before.</p>
<p>"We just made a pit stop yesterday when we found Danny falling out of the sky, shouldn't we get a little more flying done before we camp out?" Sokka asked as he climbed down off of Appa, landing on the dirt with a thud.</p>
<p>"He is right, at this rate we won't get to the north pole until spring." Katara added.</p>
<p>"But Danny is hurt, he should get some rest." Aang tried to protest, turning and gesturing to Danny who was still standing on top of Appa's saddle.</p>
<p>"No, I am fine. You don't need to worry about me. And it is not like we aren't resting while we are on Appa, he is the one doing all the work."</p>
<p>"Well um," Aang looked around trying to think quickly of some sort of excuse. Danny recognized that look from when he and his friends had to come up with something to hide his ghostliness from his parents or something. "Appa is getting tired," He started. "aren't you boy?" Aang looked up to his bison who had no response whatsoever to the question. "I said, aren't you boy?" Aang asked again louder, nudging his arm against Appa's leg. Appa seemed to roll his eyes and let out a large dramatic yawn.</p>
<p>Sokka shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that was really convincing." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.</p>
<p>Danny slid down Appa's side, adding. "Hard to argue with a ten-ton magical monster."</p>
<p>Aang yelled out. "Look!" He pointed out to the water as a ginormous orange and yellow fish with frilly fins leaped out of the water before diving back in with a huge splash. "That's why we are here: Elephant koi, and I am going to ride them. Katara, you got to watch me!" He jumped into the water headfirst and started swimming further out.</p>
<p>Sokka turned around to Danny and Katara, and waved his finger around his head in a crazy motion. Danny chuckled.</p>
<p>Suddenly, a humongous koi fish with different coloring then the first one leaped out of the water with Aang clinging onto its dorsal fin on its back.</p>
<p>Katara turned to Sokka. "He looks pretty good out there."</p>
<p>Sokka rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding me? The fish is doing all the work."</p>
<p>Katara turned around to see Appa was chewing on one of their sleeping bags that had fallen off the saddle, and she ran over trying to pull it out of his mouth.</p>
<p>Sokka stopped watching Aang and started to look over at Danny. Sokka didn't really trust Danny just yet. This was strange, he just falls out of the sky with recent burn marks and injuries, and then moments later Zuko shows up to attack them. For all he knew Danny was a fire nation sent there to spy on them something. But then if that was the case why would he be all burned. It didn't seem like Zuko knew him.</p>
<p>Danny could tell that Sokka was scanning over him and was in deep thought, but he wasn't going to say anything. Mentioning something like that would just make him suspicious. Danny suddenly froze when he spotted a dark shadow swimming through the water, it was much bigger than any of the other koi that were in the lake. "There is something in the water, and it doesn't look friendly." He commented, sharing a look with Sokka who undoubtedly saw it too.</p>
<p>Sokka ran closer to the beach shore, his toes just touching the water. "Aang, there's something in the water!" He called out. Just then, one of the koi was pulled under the water by the creature. Danny's eyes widened slightly as he was trying to survey the situation. His eyes flicking back and forth from Aang to the shadow.</p>
<p>Katara ran back around the corner hearing Sokka shout. "What's wrong?" She asked.</p>
<p>"Aang's in trouble." Sokka answered before waving his hands in the air trying to get the boy's attention. "Aang!"</p>
<p>"Get out of there." Katara added.</p>
<p>Aang turned to face the group on the shore and started to wave with a bright cheerful smile on his face. Suddenly something scared the koi he was riding and it stopped abruptly, throwing him in the middle of the open water. A huge black fin emerged behind Aang as he started to tread water.</p>
<p>Danny's core tightened in his chest, someone was in trouble, Aang could be hurt. His obsession pounding on him making his head and core ake. trying to urge him to transform, do anything that could help. He fell to the ground and grabbed his neck as electricity surged through him; this thing was going to give him a painful shock every time he tried to use his powers. He needed a way to get it off, he didn't have time to think about it.</p>
<p>He was still quite hurt from his injuries and from falling through the portal, even if he didn't have this thing in his neck he would hardly be able to use his powers. He clenched his fist and his knuckles whitened. He tried to summon any energy he had left into his hand, to fire at least one blast to distract the creature. Aang jumped into the air and started running for shore. He was running on top of the water he was so fast getting out of there.</p>
<p>Aang ran as fast as he could and as soon as he got to the shore he crashed into Sokka and they both flew into a tree and a pile of snow that was behind them. Danny stopped trying to redirect the ectoplasm into his hand and breathed a sigh of relief as the creature turned around and started to swim back out to sea.</p>
<p>Suddenly Danny collapsed, he was drained from the pain the chip gave him from even attempting to go ghost, His head was splitting. "Danny!" Katara called out as she ran over to where Danny had collapsed. But before she could get there, multiple people jumped down from the trees and grabbed each of the team members, and one of them ran over and picked up Danny from off the ground roughly. They tied up everyone and blindfolded them, including Danny who at the moment was knocked out cold.</p>
<p>They were carried up the mountain by the warriors and tied to a big wooden post. Danny was still out but slowly starting to stir. Suddenly someone's voice called out to the group.</p>
<p>"You four have some explaining to do."</p>
<p>"And if you don't answer all of our questions, we are throwing you back in the water with the Unagi." A woman's voice added</p>
<p>"Show yourself, cowards!" Sokka yelled, still tied to the log and blindfolded. The woman walked up to the boy and ripped the blindfold off him, throwing it onto the ground. Three of the women behind them removed the blindfolds of everyone else that were tied to the tree, including Danny even though he was still out.</p>
<p>Sokka looked over the girls in green samurai uniforms that stood in front of them. "Who are you, and where are the men that ambushed us?"</p>
<p>The leader of the group scowled at the question. "There are no men, we ambushed you." She threw her hands down angrily. "Now tell us who are you, and what are you doing here?"</p>
<p>Sokka scoffed "Wait a second, there is no way a bunch of girls took us down."</p>
<p>The leader walked up to Sokka and grabbed him by the neck of his jacket looking him in the eye. "A bunch of girls huh? The Unagi is going to eat well tonight." She smirked.</p>
<p>Katara whipped around hearing this and called out to the girl. "No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes." She tried to quickly explain to the angry warrior who still had a hold on her older brother.</p>
<p>Aang spoke up. "It's my fault. I am sorry we came here, I just wanted to ride the elephant koi." Suki let go of Sokka's collar and turned to face the bald boy. An older looking man called out.</p>
<p>"how do we know you aren't fire nation spies? Kyoshi has stayed out of the war so far, and we intend to keep it that way."</p>
<p>Aang's face brightened. "This island is named for Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi." He claimed.</p>
<p>The man waved his hand dismissively at the boy. "Ha, how could you possibly know her, she was born here four hundred years ago. She has been dead for centuries." A grin spread across Aang's face.</p>
<p>"I know her because I am the Avatar."</p>
<p>Suki shook her fist in the air, while the man's jaw dropped to the ground. "Th-That's impossible," she called out. "the last avatar was an air bender who disappeared a hundred years ago." Her eyes narrowed at the boy.</p>
<p>"That me." Aang claimed with a smile. The man scowled.</p>
<p>"Throw the imposter to the Unagi." He demanded. The women stepped forward holding yellow fans as weapons.</p>
<p>Aang looked around and then air bended himself into the air, and he flew over the statue of Avatar Kyoshi that was on top of the pillar they were tied to. The man whipped back around.</p>
<p>"It's true, you are the avatar." Everyone stood in shock.</p>
<p>"Now check this out!" Aang exclaimed as he reached for his marbles in his pocket and started spinning them around in his hand. A crowd behind the Kyoshi warriors cheered, whereas the warriors themselves were in silent awe.</p>
<p>Katara laughed for a second and then remembered that Danny had just collapsed before they were taken. "Danny, is he okay?" She asked worriedly. Danny was on the back of the post opposite Katara so she didn't see him.</p>
<p>Suki stepped forward to undo the rope tying them up. "Your friend was already knocked out when we ambushed you."</p>
<p>Sokka turned around. "He was badly hurt when we found him yesterday, maybe you should check it out. Do you have anything that can help?" he asked lifting Danny from where he was tied to the log.</p>
<p>Two of the warriors walked up and picked Danny up by his arms. "We will take him to our healer." One of them said as they were walking away. "There is no need to worry, he will be fine soon."</p>
<p>-|-</p>
<p>Danny's eyes flickered open, his head still aching. As Danny rolls over he realizes that his bandages are different, softer and his burn is stinging. Not like pain from the burn itself, but more like when you put antiseptic on a cut.</p>
<p>He heard footsteps and sat up to see a woman in flowing green robes, with armor layered overtop. Her face was painted white, with pale red accents extending like wings from her eyelids. Danny would call it theatrical, if it didn't make her look so warlike. Besides, he thought, it's not like it was any stranger than anything else in this world. "Good, you are awake." She started, her voice sounded young. "Those burns were pretty bad, I was just coming to check on you." Danny smiled.</p>
<p>"Thanks, but I am fine." He paused a second looking around again. "Where are we?" He was on some sort of wooden table, and the walls had green tapestries and gold accents flowing down to the floor.</p>
<p>"You are on Kyoshi island, your friends are here too, somewhere in town." She gave a warm smile. "My name is Kyani."</p>
<p>"My name is Danny. Oh, and thanks for healing me up." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.</p>
<p>"I didn't heal you; I was more of an assistant." She blushed slightly, leaning back.</p>
<p>"Well, thanks anyway."</p>
<p>"I am going to go train with the other warriors; it's a bit early to be leaving but would you like to come with me?" She asked, helping Danny up from the table.</p>
<p>Danny hesitated for a second, thinking over it. "Sure, sounds cool."</p>
<p>-|-</p>
<p>Once they reached the wooden building, none of the other Kyoshi warriors had shown up yet. They walked in and Danny scanned over the room, this place was elegant, it looked to be a great place for training that involved more fighting techniques or swords than something for energy blasters. The back wall was layered with an assortment of weapons, like katanas, daggers, and quite a few fans.</p>
<p>One of the weapons instantly caught Danny's eye, it was a katana that had what looked like a green dragon carving on it, when it came to the dragon you could see through it, like it was glass. The dragon spread all the way down the blade. "What is this one?" Danny asked, carefully lifting it off of the wall.</p>
<p>Kyani walked over and looked at what he was holding. "That is the spirit blade, it was known to be the weapon of Kohret The Protector. He would be able to use it to ward off evil spirits or ghosts." Danny twisted it around in this hand and sliced it slowly through the air. "We don't use it though, it is mostly decorative. It's way too light to do any damage in an actual battle." Kyani explained.</p>
<p>"So, it just sits here on this wall collecting dust?" Danny held it up to the light, this katana felt familiar somehow. And Kyani was right, this sword felt like it would float away if he wasn't holding it. It would be perfect for flying, there wouldn't be any drag. This would probably be a perfect weapon in the hands of a ghost. "Kyani, am I allowed to have this? If you don't use it, then there shouldn't be a problem with me having it." He turned around to face her, the sword still in his hand.</p>
<p>"I don't see a problem with it, but you should probably still ask Suki before you take it."</p>
<p>Just then the rest of the Kyoshi warriors walked in through the door. Kyani gestured towards Danny. "Suki this is Danny, and Danny this is Suki."</p>
<p>"Nice to meet you Danny." Suki said walking over to him, she looked down at his hands. "The Spirit Blade?"</p>
<p>"Oh, yes I was looking at it. I was wondering if I might be able to have it, I know of a fighting style that will be able to use a sword like this. It would be extremely useful to me." Danny explained.</p>
<p>"Hmm, that is a very sacred blade. Even if you are friends with the Avatar, we wouldn't just give it to someone we have never met before. You should be worthy to wield such a weapon" She crossed her arms.</p>
<p>Danny paused for a second. "I could try and prove myself." He suggested. Putting the blade carefully back on the wall behind him.</p>
<p>"How would you fight, with injuries such as your own?" She gestured to Danny's bandages that could be seen over his shoulder where the shirt he was wearing did not reach.</p>
<p>"I am not just a pretty face. I can fight." He smirked. He knew the burns were bad. But he had gone through much worse and still fought against much more powerful ghosts. This was just a human who didn't have any powers. From what his mom had taught him from her ghost self-defense classes, he was sure he could take her down with minimal effort and stress on his injuries.</p>
<p>Suki smiled back. "Alright then, let's see what you got." She got down into a fighting stance as the other warriors backed up a bit. Her fan was still on her hip and she was holding her hands out defensively.</p>
<p>Danny had a slightly smug smile on his face as he walked closer, also doing a defensive stance, signaling that she would need to make the first move. Suki smiled, this kid knew what he was doing.</p>
<p>She stepped forward quickly trying to reach for Danny's wrist. Danny quickly lifted his arm up and blocked her attack. And then ducked down under her leg as it swung over his head. Danny spun and quickly kicked her side lightly from one side, she reached down and grabbed Danny's ankle.</p>
<p>Danny smirked again as he flipped himself over, causing his leg to be freed from her grip as well as knocking her off balance. Danny swiped his other leg under hers, knocking her feet out from under her. Causing her to fall on her back on the ground.</p>
<p>Suki smiled, as Danny walked over and offered his hand to her. "You are a skilled fighter." She nodded her head down. "You can have the blade if you want, but use it wisely."</p>
<p>Danny nodded back "Thank you." He turned around to grab the katana again as well as a black sheath with green accents that was sitting next to where the sword was.</p>
<p>"What is the fighting style that would use such a light weapon?" Suki questioned with her hand on her cocked hip.</p>
<p>"You wouldn't know it, and it's not something you can really learn. It's hard to explain." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, hoping there would be no more questions about this topic.</p>
<p>"Well use it well, we should get to training. The others should be in town somewhere if you are looking for them."</p>
<p>"Thank you." Danny left the building with the katana attached to his waist.</p>
<p>-|-</p>
<p>Danny walks past Sokka who was walking back up the mountain muttering something angrily to himself, Danny decided to leave him alone. As he makes it into the small town he sees Aang and Katara talking next to a food stand. She then throws her hands in the air and grabs her food basket as Aang is dragged away by his shirt by a group of young girls. Katara stomped away fuming.</p>
<p>"Hey, Katara. What happened there?" Danny asked pointing his thumb in the direction Aang went.</p>
<p>"Ugh, Aang is letting all of this Avatar fame go to his head. He doesn't want to leave." She grumbled.</p>
<p>"I let fame go to my head once or twice. Believe me, that is not a mistake I want to make again. I understand, he will get over it. It'll just take a little bit." Danny tried to reassure her.</p>
<p>Katara walked in front of him and turned around, stopping them in the middle of the dirt road. "I know." She sighed. "But I am worried about him, he is just going to go off and do something stupid and get himself hurt."</p>
<p>"If you don't let him make mistakes he will never learn. And besides, we will be here if he needs us."</p>
<p>"You're right, but we still need to leave soon, we can't risk staying in one place too long." She turned around and started walking again. Danny walked next to her. "I am glad to see you are better, what happened?"</p>
<p>"I was just really weak, I was drained."</p>
<p>"And what about that." Katara asked, pointing towards the sword at Danny's side.</p>
<p>"Oh, this?" he pulled the katana out of its sheath showing it off to Katara. "It is something called the spirit blade; the Kyoshi warriors gave it to me."</p>
<p>"Really?" She narrowed her eyes a bit.</p>
<p>"It's not like I stole it." He raised his hand in surrender. "They weren't using it so they let me have it. And it is way too light to be used in a fight." Danny explained putting the sword away. They talked for a little longer until Katara spoke up again.</p>
<p>"Okay well, I am going back to our hut for a while. I will see you later." She waved walking down the road still holding her basket of food.</p>
<p>-|-</p>
<p>A while later Danny was walking back up the mountain to look for Kyani when he saw Sokka and Suki running down the mountain with a gray-haired man. Wait, was Sokka wearing a dress? "Danny! Come quick, there are fire benders at the shore." Sokka called out. Danny's eyes widened and he started following them.</p>
<p>The group hid behind the houses so they would not be seen by the invaders. They could hear Zuko call out. "Come out Avatar! You can't hide from me forever." They were riding what looked like a cross between a komodo dragon and a rhino.</p>
<p>They all climbed onto the roof of a house to get the jump on them. The Kyoshi warriors spread their fans and leaped off of the houses onto the backs of the rhinos, knocking most of the riders off of their saddles. Suki ran straight through and charged at Zuko. As she leaped into the air Zuko turned his creature around to knock her down with its whip-like tail.</p>
<p>Zuko readied his hand to blast her but Sokka jumped in the way using one of the fans to stop the fire from getting to her. He was about to try to shoot again when Danny jumped off the roof above them and knocked Zuko to the ground. "Miss me?" He quipped as Zuko tried to regain his balance.</p>
<p>Zuko threw a fire blast at him, catching one of the houses on fire behind him. Danny glared at Zuko and charged at him punching him in the chest. Zuko kicked him away causing him to fall to the floor. Danny was still definitely hurt, there was no denying it. he wasn't fit to fight like this, but he could still try. The fight with Suki was different, he could use a very minimal technique, whereas with Zuko he had to dodge the fire, he fought very differently than the Kyoshi warriors did. He spun his legs around knocking Zuko onto the ground again as Suki, Kyani, and Sokka surrounded him boxing him in.</p>
<p>Zuko glared up at them and suddenly spun his legs around shooting fire from his feet. The fire made a small blast that surrounded him and it knocked Kyani into the house that they were standing next to, while it knocked Sokka and Danny to the ground with a thud. Suki was thrown into a post and then fell to the ground knocked out.</p>
<p>Zuko jumps into the air and runs to the middle of the dirt road. "Nice try Avatar." He called out. "But these little girls won't save you!" He looked around for him waiting for him to come out.</p>
<p>"Hey!" Sokka tried to retort, but he was mostly breathless.</p>
<p>"Hey, over here!" Zuko turned around to see Aang holding his staff up towards him.</p>
<p>Zuko stepped forward and readied to fight. "Finally." He muttered. He shot multiple fire blasts at the Avatar who dogged them all easily, without flinching. Aang then spun his staff around, propelling him into the air to land next to the prince for a closer fight.</p>
<p>As Aang landed on the ground he turned into a roll grabbing two of the Warriors' fans that had fallen in the battle. He spun around creating a large wave of air and threw Zuko into a building wall. Aang quickly looked around and jumped into the air using his glider. He soared over all of the damage done to the village by the invaders with a sad look on his face. This was his fault and he knew it. He should have listened to Katara.</p>
<p>He spotted her helping a young girl get to safety and landed weightlessly next to her. "Look what I brought to this place." He sighed.</p>
<p>"Aang, it's not your fault."</p>
<p>"Yes, it is. These people got their town destroyed trying to protect me." Aang looked down to his feet.</p>
<p>Danny limped slightly over to them holding his side. "Then we should leave," Danny mentioned. "Zuko will try to follow us." Katara nodded and looked back to Aang. "I know it feels wrong to run but it might be the only way to help them."</p>
<p>Aang sighed deeply and turned around. "I'll call Appa."</p>
<p>Danny and Sokka split off to go help separately in the fight, Danny had just taken down a few more fire nation soldiers before he ran up to Aang and Katara. As Aang turned around to go and get Appa, Danny turned to see Kyani running up to them. "What do we do?"</p>
<p>"We are going to leave, the soldiers will follow us. We won't be able to help with the damage, but if we can get them out of here it will be safe." He paused. "Thank you for, you know, everything." He chuckled nervously.</p>
<p>"It was nice meeting you, Danny. And don't get hurt again." She jabbed her finger in his direction.</p>
<p>"You know that's not going to happen."</p>
<p>Kyani laughed.</p>
<p>Danny stuck his hand out and held it in a fist. "It's a fist bump." He smiled. She stuck her hand out and gave him a fist bump too and smiled back. Danny spun around to see the team climbing onto Appa to escape. He ran over waving behind him.</p>
<p>As soon as he jumped onto the bison Aang turned around. "Appa, yip yip." He called out. The bison took off into the air and started to fly away from the island.</p>
<p>Danny could hear Zuko command below him. "Get back to the ship, don't lose sight of them!" The soldiers started following Zuko's command and Danny breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up to see Katara lean over to Aang.</p>
<p>"I know it's hard, but you did the right thing." She tried to reassure him. "Zuko would have destroyed the whole place if we had stayed. They are going to be okay."</p>
<p>Aang turned away from her, paused for a second, and then dove off of Appa. Danny and Sokka's eyes widened in shock as they leaned over the saddle to see where Aang went. "What are you doing!"</p>
<p>Aang disappeared into the deep water of the lake, all was silent. A couple of seconds later there was a rumbling and water coming from the water and large bubbles started emerging. Suddenly the giant sea creature from before rose its head out of the water trying to throw Aang off its head. Aang pulled back on the serpent's head causing a stream of water to escape its mouth, a stream of water drenching the small village, smothering the many fires. He leaped into the air and landed back on the bison</p>
<p>As he climbed back onto the saddle Aang started. "I know I know, that was stupid and dangerous." He crossed his legs.</p>
<p>Danny slightly raised his eyebrow and Katara responded."Yes… it was," She leaned forward and hugged Aang, who had a huge smile on his face. Danny chuckled at the boy's reaction and started looking back out to sea with his hand on the katana at his side.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Lol, this chapter is so long. I hoped you enjoyed it. I was trying not to make the whole thing word for word. I would love to hear what you thought of it. Sorry if you had to wait long for this chapter.</p>
<p>Very special thanks to (Ao3) -TheLostPleiad. They betta read this chapter and gave me loads of ideas and feedback for changes to make this chapter 10 times better than it was before. They are so amazing. &lt;3</p>
<p>Please tell me what you think of it. :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my art for my version of Danny, sorry if it is not that good, I tried my best. It shows the main burns, outfit, chip, and sward. I can't draw eyes or hands to save my life lol. Hope it still works, please tell me what you think. &lt;3</p>
<p>https://www.instagram.com/p/CLsy3z4BnJx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They flew for about a day before they reached their next stop. Danny looked over the edge of the saddle to see a dry, yellowish wasteland. On the horizon lay several stone pyramids, packed sturdily together. Danny could just make out small dots -the size of ants thanks to the distance- bustling across the landscape. It must be a city. There was a pathway leading up to the large gates of the city that looked to be raised from the ground out of a large pit that Danny couldn't see the bottom of.</p>
<p>Aang steered Appa down to the ground just a bit off the long winding pathway that led to the city. He jumped off just before Appa's feet touched the ground in his excitement. "Here we are, guys! The city of Omashu. I used to always come here to visit my friend Bumi." Pointed his staff towards the city before taking off running down the hill towards the path. "Come on, slowpokes!", he called back to the other teens, who were still getting down off of Appa's saddle.</p>
<p>"Aang, wait!" Katara called, causing Aang to turn back around with a raised eyebrow. "It could be bad if people find out you're the avatar; word might spread to the Fire Nation."</p>
<p>Sokka stepped forward. "You need a disguise."</p>
<p>Aang put his hands on his hips. "What am I supposed to do, grow a mustache?"</p>
<p>Danny looked back at Appa. "I think I have an idea."</p>
<p>Moments later, Aang and Katara had taken a bunch of Appa's fur and crafted it into a makeshift wig, and a mustache to go along with it. It was held together by some rope they had found in Sokka's bag. Aang kept scratching his head and face. "It's so itchy." As he scratched, some of the hairs fell out, floating to the ground. Aang turned to Appa. "How do you live in this stuff, boy?"</p>
<p>The bison responded with a grumble as he plopped down with a thud on the ground, kicking up loose dirt around him. Sokka stood up from the rock he had been lounging on with Danny. "Great, now you look just like my grandfather."</p>
<p>Katara turned back to face Sokka. "Technically Aang is 112 years old," Sokka responded with a slight nod.</p>
<p>Danny's eyes widened a bit. They had briefly mentioned that Aang was stuck in ice, but he never really thought about for how long. Even then, it could just be that the Avatar gets old slower than most. Danny was still surprised.</p>
<p>"Can we go now? I want you to see the inside of the city. It's twice as fun!" Aang jumped up.</p>
<p>"Twice as fun as what? Standing out here?" Danny said as he pushed himself off of the rock.</p>
<p>Aang didn't acknowledge Danny's comment as he pulled up his staff and started using it like it was a crutch. "Let's get going, young whippersnappers. The big city awaits." Aang changed his voice to be more raspy and deep to give the appearance of an old man. The others just looked at each other and shrugged, starting to follow the energetic 112-year-old.</p>
<p>As they walked up to the gates of the city, for some reason at the end of the path stood a cabbage salesman with his cabbage cart under his left arm. One of the guards called out with a commanding and irritated tone. "Rotten cabbages! What kind of slum do you think this is?" The guard crushed the single cabbage in his hands like it was nothing. As the broken pieces of cabbage fell to the dirt, the guard raised his fists and the ground beneath the cabbage cart in front of him was launched into the air. The man who was holding two cabbages in his arms at the moment ran over to the edge of the ravine as the cabbage cart fell into the abyss.</p>
<p>"My cabbages!", the man cried, dropping the cabbages that were in his hands on the ground as he grabbed onto the edge of the ravine, leaning over seeing nothing but darkness.</p>
<p>The team leaned over the edge seeing the same. Aang straightened his back upright and whispered out the side of his mouth. "Just keep smiling." Sokka and Danny turned to each other and kind of shrugged before they continued walking forward.</p>
<p>The moment they reached the guards, the same one who had launched the cabbage cart, used what Danny assumed was earthbending to lift a large boulder and hold it threateningly over Aang's head. Danny almost felt like he should jump in and push Aang out of the way, but the boulder seemed to be staying in place. "State your business."</p>
<p>Aang quickly sped out from underneath the rock, jabbing his finger in the guard's face. "My business is my business, young man, and none of yours." The guard dropped the boulder in shock, causing it to fall to the ground with a thud. "I've got half a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside." Everyone on the team seemed to be either cringing or worried for Aang, Danny was thinking Aang was going to get in trouble or arrested for this.</p>
<p>The guard put his hands up in a defensive motion. "Settle down, old-timer. Just tell me who you are." Aang closed one of his eyes and moved around, holding himself up with his staff. "Name's Bonzo Pippenpadlopsicopolis, the Third. And these are my grandkids."</p>
<p>Katara stepped forward, holding her hand out. "Hi. June Pippenpadlopsicopolis. Nice to meet you." The guard scratched his chin for a moment, looking Katara up and down. Danny and Sokka were both surprised that she managed to recite the name without hesitation, and were both now hoping that they didn't have to say it next.</p>
<p>The man narrowed his eyes. "You look like a responsible young lady. See that your grandfather stays out of trouble." He turned to the side. "Enjoy Omashu."</p>
<p>"We will." Katara responded, swinging her hand behind her.</p>
<p>The guard gestured to the other guards that were standing at attention on the edge of the wall. They nodded and then proceeded to raise their hands in the air and throw them to the side to bend the walls out of the way to make a large opening into the city. The teen's eyes widened in amazement when they entered.</p>
<p>The place was beautiful. All of the houses were stacked on top of one another and woven around, making the perfect use of space. Around the whole city were long chutes of rock, weaving and dodging around the houses. There were hundreds of people walking around the city, even if the pathways between the houses were small. All of the people only seemed to wear shades of green and gold; Danny assumed that was their national colours.</p>
<p>Aang pointed to one of the shoots. "This is the Omashu delivery system: miles and miles of tubes and chutes." He pointed to another spot, where earthbenders were pulling up containers made of rock that had what looked like foods and goods in them. "Earthbending brings the packages up, and gravity brings them back down again."</p>
<p>Sokka turned to face Aang. "Great, so they get their mail on time."</p>
<p>Aang nodded. "They do get their mail on time. But my friend Bumi found a better use for these chutes." A mischievous grin spread across Aang's face.</p>
<p>Aang dragged them to the nearest chute and grabbed onto a container, dragging it over to the entrance of the chute that looked remarkably like a slide. The moment it was placed at the top Aang motioned for the others to come over. "Come on, one ride. Then we are off to the north pole. Airbender's honor." Danny looked over to the container and then back at Aang. He knew this was a bad idea, but he wasn't going to pass up the chance to try something like this.</p>
<p>All four of them got into the container; it was just big enough to fit all of them in snugly. Aang began to scoot the container closer to the edge with his weight until it was teetering on the edge. Katara spoke up, a waver in her voice. "This sounded like fun at first, but now that I'm here..." Aang scooted the container closer once more, and it started falling down. "I'm starting to have second thoughts—!"</p>
<p>Everyone let out a scream; it felt like they were falling straight down instead of the gradual incline they were expecting. Aang started laughing. It was actually kind of fun, like being on a roller coaster without any safety precautions. But who needs safety, right? Danny was already half-dead.</p>
<p>The cart started to get faster and faster, surprising Danny. It seemed like something like this, with rock on rock, would get slower as the incline evened out, but apparently not. And then there was the problem: Where were they going, exactly? Ugh, Danny needed to think things through more. This was probably a bad idea.</p>
<p>Danny leaned forward and spoke loudly enough that it could be heard over the wind. "Uh… how much weight is this thing supposed to carry, Aang?"</p>
<p>"You don't need to worry about it, Danny! When me and my friend Bumi did this we were perfectly fine," Aang said, putting his hands in the air.</p>
<p>Sokka leaned forward. "There were only two of you then! Right now there are four of us, what happens when we get to a sharp tur-" Just as Sokka spoke the sharp turn he had spoken of arrived. Instead of turning like it was designed to the crate smashed straight through the earthen edges of the slide. The crate, and the four kids along with it, fell onto one of the house roofs, using it as a ramp to shoot itself back into the air.</p>
<p>As it fell back down it hit one of the walls of a house across the path from it. The moment it landed on the wall it fell back down and landed on the roof of a… cabbage cart? Danny could hear footsteps coming up from around the corner; they had big boots on, so he assumed they were guards. Great time to be arrested.</p>
<p>A man was jumping up and down next to them, yelling, "My cabbages! You are going to pay for this!"</p>
<p>As soon as the guards rounded the corner and stopped in front of them. Danny put his hands up. His friends looked at him strangely, and then Danny realized there were probably no guns here, just bending, so they probably wouldn't need to see your hands when you were being arrested. He quickly put his hands back down as he looked up to the guards.</p>
<p>The one in the middle called out, "You're coming with us."</p>
<p>Aang chuckled, an embarrassed look on his face. "Umm, two cabbages please?"</p>
<p>X</p>
<p>To Danny's surprise they were not handcuffed in rock or something, but instead led peacefully to the palace in the middle of the city. Momo was even allowed to jump around. Inside were a lot of tapestries covered with green and gold (there were those colors again). And at the end of the long room was a throne that was carved from rock. Sitting on that throne with two guards on either side of him was an older-looking man whose back was hunched over in a slightly uncomfterble looking position, it was nearly taking a foot off his full height.</p>
<p>Danny could feel his presence in the room, even if he looked old and frail; maybe this guy was more powerful than he looked. Danny liked to think that he was pretty good at assessing situations, but this place was getting harder and harder to understand.</p>
<p>The hunched-back man tilted his head at the sight of the kids, one of the two giant feathers on his cap—crown?— flopped off to the side. The lead guard spoke up while the others gently pushed the teens to their knees. "Your majesty, these juveniles were arrested for, vandalism, traveling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of cabbages."</p>
<p>Danny quickly noticed that the others had all placed their hands on their knees, so he assumed that was what you did in this world when you got arrested. He guessed it was to show that you were not going to bend anything. "What is your judgment, sire?", the guard asked.</p>
<p>The king's eyes scanned over the group, like he was judging their threat level. He looked at Aang's face for a long while before stopping on Danny. He raised an eyebrow, like he had recognized that Danny was tense and ready to jump up and fight if need be.</p>
<p>Danny recognized that the king had noticed his hidden fighting stance that was disguised by what looked like a more relaxed position, a common stance with experienced fighters to throw off their opponent. That was when Danny knew for sure that this king was smarter than he looked. But instead of relaxing, Danny just stayed the way that he was. Even if the king knew that Danny was ready for a fight that didn't mean that the guards did. If anything happened to his friends, he was ready to fight.</p>
<p>The king slightly nodded at Danny, as if he was saying good job. That surprised Danny; if someone was ready to fight in your palace, the normal reaction wouldn't be to send them a knowing nod. The king stood up and raised his hand to the group. "Throw them… a feast."</p>
<p>Everyone in the room seemed baffled and taken aback by the king's judgment. What is with this crazy place, what was this king trying to do? But as he said, within a couple minutes there was a feast prepared and four chairs placed around one end of a newly placed elongated table and one large throne at the other end for the king.</p>
<p>As the three teens and tween (sort of) sat down at the table, the king walked up behind them, putting his hands on the back of their chairs. "My people have gotten fat from too many feasts. So I hope you like your chicken with no skin." The man held up one for the chicken legs that was on the table, handing it over to Aang.</p>
<p>Aang gently put up his hand to push the king's hand away. "Thanks, but I don't eat meat."</p>
<p>The man held the drumstick out to Sokka. "How 'bout you? I bet you eat meat." He thrust the drumstick into Sokka's mouth before turning to Danny. "How about you? I bet you're hungry."</p>
<p>Danny eyed the man before holding up a hand. "I'm not hungry, thank you." The man nodded before turning away with a smile.</p>
<p>Danny was, in fact, hungry. But he didn't trust anything on that table. He was going to be fine not eating for a little bit.</p>
<p>Katara spoke up, tone hushed. "Is it just me, or is this guy's crown a little crooked?" She spun her finger around her head to make the crazy motion. Danny didn't say anything; this guy could actually be crazy, but also smart. Or he could be playing crazy to get answers. Which one of these was true, Danny didn't know.</p>
<p>The king sat down carefully in his chair before speaking up again, directing his question at Aang. "So, tell me young bald one, where are you from?"</p>
<p>Danny looked from the king back to Aang, who paused on his answer for a second trying to come up with an answer for the king. "I'm from… Kangaroo Island." Danny could easily tell that was a lie, so he assumed that the king could too. What was this king's plan?</p>
<p>"Kangaroo Island, hey! I heard that place is really hoppin." The king leaned forward and looked at the teens. Suddenly, Sokka started laughing. Everyone else looked at him while Danny kept his eye on the 'crazy' king.</p>
<p>Sokka quickly stopped laughing and looked around. "What? I thought it was pretty funny."</p>
<p>The king dramatically yawned and stretched his arms out. "Well, all these good jokes are making me tired. Guess it's time to hit the hay." He slowly stood up from his chair and the guards at the back of the room walked forward. But suddenly the king reached down at his plate and threw a piece of chicken at Aang.</p>
<p>And, to Danny's surprise and a slight bit of disappointment, instead of catching it with his hand Aang impulsively used airbending to catch it mid-air. The king slightly smiled and sat back down as the guards gasped. "There is an airbender in our presence, and not just any airbender… the Avatar."</p>
<p>Aang gasped and dropped the piece of chicken back on his plate. Both Sokka and Danny facepalmed. The king continued, "Now, what do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Pippenpadlopsicopolis?"</p>
<p>Aang stood up, pushing his chair away from him, his eyes darting around the room nervously. "Okay, you caught me. I'm the Avatar. Doing my Avatar thing, keeping the world safe. Everything checks out here." He lifted up the table cloth and looked under the table. "No Firebenders here. So, good work everybody! Respect each other, and don't run with your you next time!" Aang started to back up as the rest of the team stood up as well.</p>
<p>The guards stepped forward and pointed their spears at the teens. Katara crossed her arms and yelled across the room at the king. "You can't keep us here!"</p>
<p>Danny crossed his arms. "I'm pretty sure he can, Katara. He's the king."</p>
<p>Sokka piped in. "And I think we are in some serious trouble. I mean, this guy is nuts."</p>
<p>"I don't think he's as crazy as he seems, Sokka," Danny said. Their heads all shot back up to the king as he spoke again in a much more commanding voice.</p>
<p>"Tomorrow, the Avatar will face three deadly challenges." He rested his head on his hands. "But for now, the guards will show you to your chamber." Danny reached down and grabbed the katana on his hip tightly.</p>
<p>One of the guards leaned over to the king. "My liege, do you mean the good chamber or the bad chamber?", he asked.</p>
<p>The king tilted his head for a second and then looked back up at the guard. "The newly refurbished chamber."</p>
<p>"Which one are we talking about?"</p>
<p>"The one that used to be the bad chamber." He explained. "Until we finished refurbishing it, that is. Of course, we've been calling it the new chamber, but we should really number them."</p>
<p>With this distraction, Danny quickly kicked the bottom of one of the spears that one of the guards was leaning on and pulled out his blade. The guard just about fell over, gripping tightly to his spear as not to drop it. Danny held his katana out, facing the guards. "I think you should let us go."</p>
<p>"I think not," the king said. Three more guards entered the room and aimed their spears at Danny. Danny realized that without his ghost powers, he had no chance in this fight. With a sigh, he slowly slid the katana back into its sheath. Right now he was worried more about Aang than anyone else. He was going to have to go do some deadly challenges or whatever and could be hurt.</p>
<p>One of the guards took Danny's katana away from him, which Danny was not too happy about. Mentally, he was kicking himself; he should have waited for a better opportunity. To try to fight was dumb and impulsive of him. "Take them to the newly refurbished chamber that was once the bad," the king called guards each grabbed one of the kid's shoulders and walked them out.</p>
<p>They were led down the halls of the palace until they reached a dead end. One of the guards raised and lowered his hands and a part of the wall opened like a door. And since none of them were earthbenders (well, not yet in Aang's case), they wouldn't be able to escape.</p>
<p>The guards pushed the four and Momo into the room before closing up the door behind them. Looking around, Danny noticed that the room was large and round, with a tall roof, all made out of stone. There were five beds running along the wall and across the roof were transparent mesh streamers draped around, as if for decoration. Once again with the gold and green colors.</p>
<p>Katara was the first to speak up. "This is a prison cell? But… it's so nice."</p>
<p>Aang added. "They did say it was newly refurbished."</p>
<p>"Nice or not, we're still prisoners. And for some reason, Danny thought he could take on a whole army with a badly made sword." Sokka said, crossing his arms.</p>
<p>Danny sighed and leaned against the wall. "I know that was dumb of me. We could have gotten in even more trouble because of that. I wasn't thinking. I was just worried about Aang having to face those challenges and thought it would be the only chance to get everyone out of there." He laid his head on the back wall.</p>
<p>Aang grabbed his staff tightly. "I wonder what these challenges are going to be," he said nervously.</p>
<p>Katara straightened up and started looking around. "Well, we're not waiting to find out. There has to be a way out of here."</p>
<p>Aang jumped up and ran over to the other wall. "The air vents!" He pointed to a hole in the wall that was about the size of Danny's fist.</p>
<p>Sokka looked from the hole back to Aang. "If you think we're going to fit in there, you're crazier than the king."</p>
<p>"We can't, but Momo can."</p>
<p>Danny looked up to see Momo sitting on one of the beds, eating an apple. "I don't think he'll fit either, Aang"</p>
<p>Aang ignored Danny as he grabbed Momo and tried to lift him up to the hole in the wall. "Momo, go get Appa." The lemur just looked down at Aang with a confused face. Now that Momo was up there, it was clear that the vent was much too small for him to fit through.</p>
<p>Sokka lay down on one of the beds. "Eh, how is Appa supposed to save us anyway?"</p>
<p>Aang turned back around putting Momo down again. "Appa is a ten-ton flying bison. I think he could figure something out."</p>
<p>Katara got into her own bed. "Well, no point arguing about it now. Get some rest, Aang. You'll need it for tomorrow." She looked up to Danny, who was still leaning on the wall. "You going to go to bed, Danny?"</p>
<p>Sokka rolled over and waved his hand at his sister. "Just leave him be, Katara." Katara looked at Danny and then back at Sokka before nodding.</p>
<p>A while after the others fell asleep Danny decided to sit down on his own bed. There was no way he was going to sleep yet. Even if he probably needed the rest, he was sure something fishy was going to happen. It was obvious that the teens he was with were not fighters yet. They were just learning, and so far they seemed to be too trusting.</p>
<p>Even if the trusting bit helped Danny out in the long run, what if he actually had been a spy? Then what? They just let someone into their group and told him their whole plan. And without even a second thought they had eaten the food at the feast the king threw. Danny was getting worried that they were going to keep being trusting until they ended up getting stabbed in the back.</p>
<p>Danny was all hunched over sitting on the bed. He put his hands on the bandages that were on his arm. He hadn't really had a good look at the scar he knew lay beneath yet; most of the time he was unconscious when someone changed them out.</p>
<p>He was glad that he still had at least somewhat accelerated healing. So far, it seemed like with that thing in his neck, he could heal, and use some of his ghostly strength and agility. He could still see and hear a lot better than a normal human, but nowhere near as good as he was without the chip. He had to get the thing off somehow.</p>
<p>In the last couple of days he had been actively trying not to his powers. But it was harder than he thought. He didn't realize how much he used them all on a day-to-day basis. He did realize, however, that if he used some of his ice it wouldn't zap him as much because it was core energy instead of ectoenergy, which he assumed was what the chip ran on.</p>
<p>He closed his eyes and held his hand out, palm up. When his eyes opened again they were glowing blue. Danny reached into his core and pulled some of his cold into the palm of his hand. The blue light was dim in the dark room. It spun around and formed a small blue crystal made out of ice, which floated suspended in his palm.</p>
<p>Danny was very happy when he didn't get zapped. The moment his eyes stopped glowing the blue ice fell down into his clenched fist. Danny turned it over in his hands, looking at it from every direction. At least it was something.</p>
<p>Danny sat on the end of the bed, looking down at the ice in his hand for what felt like hours. Danny didn't feel like sleeping in this place; he didn't trust it. He didn't get that much sleep back home anyway. Between fighting ghosts and schoolwork, there wasn't that much time left in a day for sleep.</p>
<p>Danny's ears suddenly perked up when he heard the sound of more guards on the other side of the wall. They were probably coming in. But it wasn't morning yet, was it? He didn't think Aang would have to face his tests for a while. So what was this?</p>
<p>He pushed himself off the bed to stand up, facing the door he knew they were entering from. Much quieter than before, the rock covering the wall opened, revealing five guards with spears. They quickly saw Danny awake and pulled out what Danny could only describe as some sort of blow-dart gun made out of rock.</p>
<p>Danny jumped out of the way as a shot flew past his shoulder. He quickly dropped the ice crystal he had made before running to the side to avoid more darts. But he was caught off guard when the soldiers shot two of the darts at Sokka and Katara. This caused an opening for another guard to hit Danny with a dart from the side.</p>
<p>Danny quickly yanked the dart out the moment he had felt it pierce his skin, but the damage was already done. Danny quickly turned to look at Aang, who was just waking up. The guards were already pulling an unconscious Sokka and Katara out of the room. Aang's eyes widened when he spotted the guards and Danny just about falling over with two guards ready to grab him.</p>
<p>Aang jumped from the bed and planted his feet on the ground. "What are you doing with my friends!?" His eyes narrowed. The guards grabbed both of Danny's arms. At this point as Danny was fighting unconsciousness.</p>
<p>"You will see your friends again after you finish your challenges," one of the guards stated. Aang seems about ready to fight the guards. "I would not recommend fighting us." He gestured to the door which Sokka and Katara had already been taken through. "You do not want your friends to be hurt in the process."</p>
<p>Aang narrowed his eyes and stood down; he couldn't risk the chance of them getting hurt. His only choice now was to beat the king's challenges. And they couldn't be that hard right?</p>
<p>Danny was dragged from the room by the two guards, but for some reason, even if he was still fighting his unconsciousness they did not stick him with another dart. Did they run out or something? Maybe they needed to talk with him?</p>
<p>Danny's suspicions were proven true when he was being taken to a different room than Sokka and Katara. Not good. The guards put Danny up in a chair that felt like it was made of rock, which it probably was. The room was another nice one. Danny assumed that they didn't have any dark and gloomy dungeons in this kingdom.</p>
<p>Surprising Danny, he was not tied down. Instead, he was injected with a different dart, and the guards left. Danny didn't know what was happening, but suddenly he started to feel less drowsy. Was whatever they'd injected him with the antidote for the tranquilizer?</p>
<p>Danny froze after a second. He could hear someone else in the room. He narrowed his eyes as his vision started to still. He was right, someone was in the room. And it was none other than the king himself. He stepped towards the halfa ominously "Hello, Danny. I have been meaning to speak with you after that feast. How was your stay?"</p>
<p>"As good as you can get while being a prisoner, I guess." Danny shrugged his shoulders but kept an eye on the man's movements. "You know, I was wondering. Are you really crazy, or are you just pretending? I can't tell."</p>
<p>The man smiled. "What is the definition of crazy, truly? Is it just the way you talk, or the way you act? Or maybe it's the way you think; I can never quite remember these things." The man waved his hand dismissively. "Just because you are crazy, doesn't mean you can't be a ruler. Sometimes places like these need a little crazy. People who think outside of the box." He laughed.</p>
<p>Danny shrugged. "Makes sense. I know you aren't dumb. You recognized my stance earlier."</p>
<p>"And you recognized my recognition." He walked forward a bit. Danny stood up from the chair. "You are obviously a fighter, and seem to know too much about this way of life for your age."</p>
<p>"What can I say. I'm a fast learner." Danny crossed his arms.</p>
<p>"You are, and that is important in a warrior. But something else is obvious. You are not from here; you are trying to adapt quickly. And are succeeding in doing so, so I can only guess that you have been thrown into strange situations often?"</p>
<p>Danny scoffed. "If you only knew."</p>
<p>"You are a great ally for the Avatar. You are well trained and suspicious of your surroundings. You can train him with what you know; he will need it for the battles to come."</p>
<p>"What about your oh so deadly tests, your majesty?"</p>
<p>"I am interested to see how he does in those. For I do have a plan. You need not fret. I am not here to hurt your friend, just merely help him on his path." He laughed. "And if the challenges weren't deadly, they would be no fun."</p>
<p>Danny paused, looking the king up and down. "I believe you. Where are Sokka and Katara?"</p>
<p>"You will join them in a moment. Thank you for speaking with me. And remember, you should teach the Avatar. Your training will send him far," the King added.</p>
<p>"I'll put that on my to-do list as soon as possible." Danny walked over to the wall and knocked. He could tell the guards were on the other side. Once the door opened, the guards walked him to the room, and gestured to the hall. Danny followed peacefully.</p>
<p>After that, Danny did not believe that the king had truly bad intentions. He was just going about helping Aang in a very unorthodox way. But Danny thought it would work. It was how he was trained (if you count it as training). Life or death situations thrown left and right. He was going to wait and see what happened. It wasn't like he could do anything in the meantime.</p>
<p>X</p>
<p>It was the next morning, or what Danny assumed was the next morning, as he, Katara, and Sokka were led down a hallway. There were guards standing behind and in front of them.</p>
<p>"I hope Aang will be okay," Katara said worriedly. She was rubbing her hands together.</p>
<p>"I hope we'll be okay!" Sokka exclaimed. "We're the hostages in this situation!" He crossed his arms and glared at the back of one of the guard's heads.</p>
<p>"I am sure Aang will be fine," Danny tried to reassure. They stopped in front of a stone wall. Danny assumed the wall led to were Aang and the king were waiting.</p>
<p>Danny's ears perked up. He could hear the king talking in his crazy tone. "So, Avatar, what do you think of my new outfit? I want your honest opinion." Danny chuckled slightly. Sokka looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. Danny just smiled back at Sokka and continued listening.</p>
<p>"I… guess it's fine," Aang answered, seeming unsure.</p>
<p>"Excellent, you just passed the first test."</p>
<p>"Really?", Aang asked.</p>
<p>"Well… Not one of the deadly ones that is. The real challenges are much more… challenging." The king clapped his hands together.</p>
<p>Danny could hear Aang running across the room. "I don't have time for your crazy games!", he called out. "Give me my friends back, we're leaving!"</p>
<p>"Oh, I thought you might refuse," the king said. "So I'm going to give your friends some very special souvenirs." The stone wall in front of them opened and Danny could now see the king and Aang. The guards holding Danny, Sokka, and Katara each pulled out a ring from a pouch on their sides. "Those delightful rings are made of pure jennamite." The guards grabbed each of the teen's wrists and placed the rings on their fingers.</p>
<p>Sokka got a dark indigo one, Katara got a teal blue one, and Danny got a neon green one. "Also known as creeping crystal", the king continued. The rings suddenly tightened onto the teens' fingers. Katara and Sokka tried to pull off their rings. Danny just looked up at the king with a raised eyebrow. In return, the king just raised his own eyebrow and gave the halfa a crazy, toothy smile.</p>
<p>"It's a crystal that grows remarkably fast. By nightfall, your friends will be covered in it. Terrible fate really, but I can stop it. But only if you corporate," the king explained.</p>
<p>Each of the rings suddenly grew slightly up the kids' hands. "Ahh, it's already creeping!" Sokka yelped.</p>
<p>Aang lowered his head. "Fine, I'll do what you want." The king smiled. Danny was getting less sure about this. But it wasn't like he could do anything now; really, what could he do? He had no powers; the most he could do was make a small ice crystal. And all he knew was that the king didn't want to kill the Avatar, only test him. Danny wasn't sure why. But he got tested hundreds of times by the other ghosts to see if he was a worthy adversary, or something along those lines. It's just a thing that ghosts do to each other. That was probably one of the main reasons Danny was so okay with this king-testing-thing.</p>
<p>The teens were led down a winding path of hallways until they made it to a large underground cave filled with waterfalls and sharp stalactites and stalagmites. It was quite beautiful, actually. Aang was led down a separate path to the other end of the cave.</p>
<p>The king raised his hands into the air. "It seems I have lost my lunch box key, and I'm hungry. Ooh, there it is!" He pointed to the waterfall. Within the waterfall was a ladder, at the top of the ladder sat a key attached to a chain. "Would you mind fetching it for me?"</p>
<p>Aang looked up to the king and narrowed his eyes before leaping forward.</p>
<p>X</p>
<p>After Aang had completed the ladder challenge he was taken to another challenge. He had to bring the king's pet flopsy to him. Aang had gone into the pen and tried to grab a small long-eared rabbit, only for a much larger rabbit-like creature to chase him around the pen. Aang ran away from the large rabbit while chasing the small one for a couple minutes until he seemed to realize something. He had turned around and stopped running, calling out to the large rabbit.</p>
<p>The large rabbit had stopped in its tracks. Aang had discovered that Flopsy was the large rabbit, not the small one. Danny was noticing the pattern in the king's challenges. The challenges were about smarts, having to figure out the challenge even if the answer looked obvious. It was pretty smart, actually.</p>
<p>The team was then taken to Aang's final challenge. It was a battle arena. He had to choose who he was going to fight in a head-to-head battle. The crystal was now wrapping its way around the teens' torsos and legs on the side of the ring. It was getting harder and harder to move. In front of Aang stood the king and two large and dangerous-looking warriors.</p>
<p>Aang was told to choose from the warriors before him. And he made the move Danny himself would have made if not for the fact that he already knew a little more about this situation: Aang chose to fight the king. The king laughed crazily before straightening his back and using earthbending to throw Aang halfway across the arena. This guy was powerful.</p>
<p>"You thought I was a frail old man," the king called out. "But I am the most powerful earthbender you'll ever see." The king was teaching Aang not to underestimate his opponents, Danny realized. The king wasn't just testing the Avatar; he was teaching him lessons!</p>
<p>Aang held his hand up. "Can I fight the guy with the ax instead?"</p>
<p>The king smiled. "There are no take-backsies in my kingdom. You might need this though." He had one of the guards throw Aang his staff.</p>
<p>The two fought for about twenty minutes back and forth. The king with his earthbending, and Aang with his airbending. Nearly the whole arena was destroyed. The fight ended in a draw. Aang had his staff pointed at the king's chest, and the king had a huge boulder held above both their heads ready to squash them any second.</p>
<p>"Well done, Avatar," the king said. "You fight with much fire in your heart." He turned around and threw the boulder against the wall of the arena, breaking it into pieces on impact. "You've passed all of my tests. Now you must answer one question."</p>
<p>"That's not fair! You said you would release my friends after I finished your tests!"</p>
<p>"Aw, but what's the point of tests if you don't learn anything?"</p>
<p>"Oh come on!" Sokka called out. By now he was nearly falling over beneath the weight of the off-balanced crystal.</p>
<p>"Answer this one question and I will set your friends free. What… is my name?" The king smiled. Aang just looked up at him with a very confused face. "From the looks of your friends, I would say you don't have that much longer." The king turned and walked away.</p>
<p>Aang turned to face his friends. "How am I supposed to know his name?"</p>
<p>"Think about the challenges. Maybe it is some kind of riddle?" Katara said.</p>
<p>"I got it!" Sokka exclaimed. Danny raised an eyebrow at Sokka.</p>
<p>"Yeah?" Aang asked enthusiastically.</p>
<p>"He's an earthbender, right? Rocky… you know because of all the rocks."</p>
<p>Danny spoke up. "We're going to keep trying, but that is a good backup."</p>
<p>"Okay, so back to the challenges," Aang said. "I got a key from the waterfall, I saved his pet, and I had a duel."</p>
<p>"And what did you learn?" Katara asked.</p>
<p>"Well, everything was different than I expected. Well… they weren't straightforward. To solve each test I had to think differently than I normally would… I know his name."</p>
<p>Aang walked back over to the king. "I solved the question the same way I solved the challenges. As you said a long time ago, I had to open my brain to the possibilities." The king laughed. "Bumi, you're a mad genius."</p>
<p>The king bent down as Aang ran over for a hug. "Aww, Aang It's good to see you. You haven't changed a bit. Literally."</p>
<p>They were interrupted by Sokka calling out. "Little help!" The king nodded and used earthbending to shatter the jennamite from the teens.</p>
<p>Katara walked over. "So, this crazy king is your old friend Bumi?"</p>
<p>"Who are you calling old!?" The king snapped. "Okay, I'm old."</p>
<p>"Why did you do this if you could've just told Aang who you were?" Sokka asked.</p>
<p>"First of all, it's pretty fun messing with people. Haha. But I do have a reason. Aang, you have a difficult task ahead. The world has changed in the hundred years you have been gone. It's the duty of the avatar to restore balance to the world by defeating Firelord Ozai. You have much to learn. You must master the 4 elements, and confront the Firelord. And when you do, I hope you will think like a mad genius."</p>
<p>Aang bowed to Bumi. "And it looks like you are in good hands," the king said. "You'll need your friends to help you defeat the Fire Nation." Momo jumped up onto Aang's shoulder. "And you'll need Momo too."</p>
<p>"Thank you for your wisdom. But before we leave I have a challenge for you." Aang pointed to his friend.</p>
<p>That day Aang and his childhood friend rode down the Omashu delivery system once more, something that Bumi had not done since his best friend disappeared.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I have worked so hard on this chapter and I hoped you enjoyed it. Very special thanks to watery_melon_baller on ao3 who betta read this chapter and made it so much better than it already was. &lt;3</p>
<p>I loved all of the comments I get on this story so far, every time I get one it makes me so happy and lights up my day. They give me the energy I need to continue this story. You are all so helpful and nice in your comments thank you ^^</p>
<p>Please leave a review and tell me what you thought of this chapter, it would mean so much.</p>
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